Friday, June 26, 2009

Comics this week

Dark Reign: The Hood #1- Parker Robbins is one busy man. Survive an attack from a superhero, put up a brave front for his underlings, attend a meeting of the Cabal, bring his wife and kid to see his mother, and oh…find a way to stop a demon from taking over his body. It’s tough being the Kingpin of Super-villains. Another interesting thing to note is that with Damien Hellstorm in New Avengers and now his sister in The Hood, the first family of hell seems to be back. The appearance of Santana makes sense as Robbins is looking for help to regain control of the Hood, and who better to help than the child of Satan. Guess that’s one more ball for Robbins to juggle.

Nova #26- Richard Rider is back as the Nova Prime and first order of business is to grab his centurions out of the line of fire. As Rider is racing to save the Nova Corps, he sees the toll the war has inflicted on the Corps. I like the fact Rider is back in a leadership role and the possible alliance at the end of the issue, however I want the old Worldmind back. This new version is just too bitchy for me. I see the basis of the Nova Corps here and that’s great but the art needs work. At times in the issue, the art look distinctly second-rate and a series like Nova deserve better.

Guardians of the Galaxy #15- After the ending of the last issue, this issue is a let-down. Just when we were looking for a big throwdown, what we get is a series of skirmishes. However I’m glad we finally get to see how powerful the team truly is. Drax is the one who killed Thanos; Adam Warlock and Gamora used to be part of the Infinity Watch; Martyr is the avatar of Death; Mantis is a would-be minor god; the team is a powerhouse and it’s good to finally see that again.

Secret Warriors #5- #5 has the same problem the previous issues of Secret Warriors had; the Secret Warriors doesn’t show up often enough! The Secret Warriors doesn’t show up till the last page and if this continues, Marvel should change the title to “Nick Fury and his various secret super-groups”.

Avengers: The Initiative #25- I know there is a new creative team coming on board. I know Dark Reign is a company-wide storyline for Marvel. I know A:TI is on the backburner at Marvel as Marvel is more interested in the New, Mighty, Dark, Coconut Avengers series; but those are still no excuse for the mess that is #25. Characters came out of nowhere and regulars seem to have undergone a personality change. Penance and Hood looks like new regulars while Gauntlet and Tigra suddenly join the New Warriors in a couple of pages. Everything was very rushed and no explanation was given for some of the changes. I mean really, did Norman Osborn truly think Gauntlet was just going to let him cut off his arm? And how did Gauntlet managed to knock Ares out of a window, take down Osborn and the Hood solo? Thank god this is the conclusion of Avengers: The Initiative Disassembled storyline!

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